On Thursday morning, Minnesota Timberwolves president Flip Saunders ended his franchise’s search for a new head coach early by declaring himself the new play-caller in the Twin Cities. This comes less than a week after Saunders made some desperation comments about Kevin Love staying in Minnesota, which leads us to believe the only reason Saunders gave himself the additional title it to try and make Love stay. Can you say “too little, too late”?

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune was first on Saunders’ decision, which didn’t come nearly in time. Love’s mind is made us and has been for some time: he’s going to leave Minnesota as a free agent next summer and there’s nothing Saunders can do about it, unless he wises up and trades the prized big man while he still can. Love would bring a king’s ransom in a deal and that’s a fact considering teams like the Boston Celtics have already worked on putting together packages that include role players and lottery picks.

So while Saunders may think his NBA playoff experience as a coach will persuade Love to stay in Minnesota, he’s dead wrong. The Timberwolves haven’t done nearly enough to prove to their star forward that they’re serious about adding complementary pieces around him to win and rumor has it he’s determined to play for a larger market team anyway.

This is a good idea in theory, Flip, or at least it was about two years ago. The phrase “a day late and a dollar short” is an understatement here.